The invention relates to digital voice enhancement, DVE, communication systems, including simplex systems.
The invention arose during development efforts directed toward reducing complexities of full duplex voice communication systems, i.e. bidirectional voice transmission where talkers exchange information simultaneously. In a full duplex system, acoustic echo cancellation is needed to overcome feedback generated by closed loop communication channel instabilities. Use of a simplex scheme that alternately selects one or another microphone or channel as active is another way to effectively control feedback into a near end microphone from a near end loudspeaker. In a simplex system, voice transmission is unidirectional, i.e. either one way or the other way at any given time, but not in both directions at the same time.
A simplex digital voice enhancement communication system does not rely on acoustic echo cancellation to ensure stable communication loop gains for closely coupled microphones and loudspeakers. However, there is a potential for feedback into a near end microphone from a far end loudspeaker. This situation exists because it would be self-defeating to have the active microphone switched off. The present invention addresses and solves this problem in a particularly simple and effective manner with a combination of readily available known components.